Re: Carb rebuild?
Need to have carbs done on 89 Johnson.I have never done this before,have read many posts in here about it and doesn't seem to difficult but my question is i don;t have a lot of time right now and boat mechanic wants $200 to do it(kits included).Just looking for input on difficulty factor for a rookie or just let boat mechanic do it.
Thanx John........
It's definitely doable for anyone who has an interest, basic tools and a service manual. Whether you should depends on:
How many carbs (what engine?)
Where you can work on it (warm, inside vs. cold, outside?)
How much you enjoy learning new mechanical things and figuring things out.
What your personal success is in doing new mechanical things - do you generally do it well, or do you often screw it up more? (Speaking for myself!)
How much you value your time- based on other things you would like to or need to be doing,
And of course your financial situation - is your time worth more or less than the money involved?
Contrary to what was written above, my first single carb job took well over 2 hours to get it off, clean and rebuild it (not including soaking over night), and put it back on. 6 would be a weekend project for me. But I'm not a great mechanic, so take that for what it's worth.
But the second time (a couple months later - because the first time I didn't "kit" it, but cleaned and reassembled, and it wasn't quite right) it probably took less than an hour start to finish and really was pretty straight forward. It's been a couple of years now, so I believe it would be back to 2+ hours if I were to do it again.
Even with an OEM manual, it was rather confusing. I broke a plastic part and had to first fix it with epoxy and eventually replace it. Fortunately, I didn't lose or break anything else, because there's a lot of losable or damagable parts that aren't in the kit. You need to be careful. I only did it because I was interested in seeing if I could and there was no local mechanic who could do it for me in a decent time frame.
Although I was able to muddle through with the basic tools I have, there are specialty tools that make it easier, and you might need to buy a gallon container of carb. cleaner which isn't exactly cheap - and may leave you with a gallon of hazmat which you never have a future use for.
Oh, and the kits often (always?) have extra parts, and it's not always absolutely clear which parts you need to use and which you don't. Again, an experienced person will know this without fretting or delaying the project to figure it out or find out.
All this is to say, it's very doable, but there is a very significant learning curve with the first time possibly frustrating and time consuming, but future ones being pretty easy and quick.
I often pay a pro to do things I'm perfectly capable of doing just because it's worth it in order to free up some personal time and aggravation. This summer I was in the "pay someone else" mode because I don't enjoy it that much and have so many other summer things to do that I enjoy more, or have to do more. I can't do this stuff in the winter because I don't have a warm place to park the boat (to remove and replace the carbs)
I shouldn't scare you: if you have the time and inclination, I'm sure you'll be fine.
